Bundesliga “Clear, honest and direct”: That’s how Union interim coach Grote is
Should save 1. FC Union Berlin from the threat of relegation: coach Marco Grote. photo
© Andreas Gora/dpa
Marco Grote is supposed to save Union Berlin from crashing. The North German doesn’t have much experience at Bundesliga level. Just a game.
Marco Grote has to step in again. For the second time this season, the U-19 coach is taking over the professional team of 1. FC Union Berlin as interim coach. After separating from club icon Urs Fischer, the 51-year-old quickly found himself in the public spotlight.
The Bremen native got one game in November and at least managed a 1-1 draw against FC Augsburg. Then he was replaced by Nenad Bjelica – and now Grote replaces the Croatian. Who is the inconspicuous North German who is supposed to save the Unioners from falling into the second division?
Grote describes himself as “clear, honest and direct”. The football coach appears self-confident, but is not someone who puts himself at the center of attention. His motto is that you can only be successful as a team. Together with assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta and Sebastian Bönig as assistant coach, he is preparing the Iron Men for the upcoming away game against 1. FC Köln starting this Tuesday.
“It’s football in the U19s, it’s football here.”
Grote is not a man of big words. He chooses his sentences carefully. His statements are clear. Grote’s credo is that it is “helpful in most moments to tell yourself the truth.” And the Union truth is bitter. The Köpenickers are only a measly point ahead of Mainz and the relegation place 16. Tactically and sportingly, Grote’s creative options are limited in such a short time. But he knows the team well, assured the interim coach before the tests of strength against Cologne and Freiburg.
Grote has hardly any experience at Bundesliga level, only the one game against Augsburg. In the 2020/2021 season he coached the second division club VfL Osnabrück and had to leave after seven defeats in a row. Otherwise, the Bremen native has a short interlude in the Greek first league and work as an assistant coach at VfB Lübeck in the men’s division. “It’s football in the U19s, it’s football here,” he said pragmatically in November.
dpa
#Subjects
